Wednesday, 15 March 2017

History will be made this evening as fresh tomatoes from Kano arrive Lagos by rail after 58 years. Emmanuel Itoya Ijewere, one of Nigeria’s eminent businessmen with extensive experience and interests across the banking, finance and agricultural spectrums disclosed this at the FirstBank’s maiden Agric Expo 2017, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, on Tuesday

Ijewere said: “the train left Kano at about 10am yesterday. As at 11am today, it has arrived Osun and by 10pm this evening, it will be in Lagos. That is happening for the first time in 58 years.”

“I want to thank those who have made it possible including the minister of Agriculture. After this, it will now be weekly affairs. We will move a lot of these things conveniently,” he added.

Ijewere whose previous national assignments included Chairmanships of the Agriculture and Food Security Commission said that the country lost 2.8 million tonnes of Tomatoes in 2016.

According to him, “at N200,000 per tonne, the country lost tomatoes worth N5.6 billion” due to poor storage facility.